But many Angolans have little to celebrate peace with, with hundreds of thousands in this oil-rich nation still wondering where their next meal will come from as much of the international aid sought by the government has not arrived.

The Cidadela stadium in the centre of Luanda was packed to the rafters for the ceremony, organised by Christian churches and attended by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, his wife, goverment members and some opposition leaders.

"Several years' suffering provoked by the war will not be appeased unless we embrace justice and forgiveness," said the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Luanda Damiao Franklim.

The jubilant crowd sang, prayed and waved scarves and white balloons.

The army of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), long a Marxist movement, on April 4, 2002 signed a peace pact with rebel officers from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), bringing an end to 27 years of conflict.

Angola's parliament has declared April 4 "Peace and Reconciliation Day".

People throughout Angola observed a minute's silence at 12:00 pmin honour of the victims of the war, which claimed an estimated 500,000 lives and has maimed thousands, victims of landmines.

About four million people are still estimated to be displaced by the war, which saw only brief interludes of calm -- and even elections -- under previous efforts to bring about a negotiated settlement.

In its latter years, the war was driven by UNITA's founder and leader Jonas Savimbi, whose death in battle on February 22 last year signalled the end of the conflict, by then the longest in Africa.

Angola is rich in almost entirely offshore oil resources, which provided much of the government's finance for the war. Donor institutions and nations have demanded transparency about the management of its oil and diamond income before holding a funding conference.

Dos Santos had no public statements to make at the stadium.

During a debate on state television, Marcial Dachala, a leader of what is now the UNITA political party, denounced the government's lack of "humanity" in catering for 85,000 former rebel fighters languishing in makeshift camps with their families.

The government has pledged to pay to help them take up their places in society, as well as in the security forces, after their demobilisation, but has yet to make good on this promise.

The former rebels are not the only ones in trouble.

"Yesterday, I ate nothing at all," said 13-year-old Justino Manda, one of hundreds of Luanda orphans who has lost his "job" since the government banned youngsters from offering to wash cars on the streets.

Since the end of the war, the international Red Cross has rounded up 1,105 such youths and put them under government supervision in the UNITA resettlement camps. Only 312 of them have been reunited with their parents.

Families across the country are known to be looking for 2,352 people, including 881 children, according to Red Cross figures likely to be far short of the reality.

WAR.WIRE